Thursday, January 24, 2008

I'm always inspired whenever the line between blogging and cartooning gets blurred, and my latest inspiration in that regard is Covered in Oil's mike w, who's not only been bringing his skills to the CiO pages, but has even branched out to start his own focused blog, Chamber of Comics. I think mike w and I are in a bit of mutual envy about each other's "artwork", but make sure to check out his stuff; it's high-quality mixed with high-larity.

In the meantime, the Ducks play the Kings tonight in each team's last game before the All-Star break, and I'm hopeful for a good bounce-back effort after some tough games against the Stars and Wings:

Speaking of the All-Star weekend, last year I introduced a new shot accuracy contest for the skills competition, and in that same nonsensical spirit I also present this week’s PuckToon. I'll apologize in advance for a so-so rendition of Jarome Iginla, but as always, enjoy it.

Prediction: The Kings are still looking to beat the Ducks for the first time on U.S. soil this season, and I think they'll be putting up a strong effort in front of their long-suffering fans. Still, these Kings have yet to see post-retirement Niedermayer on the other side of the ice, and that probably makes the difference. Ducks 4, Kings 2. Goals scored by the All-Stars: Getzlaf, Perry, Pronger, and Niedermayer, countered by All-Star Kopitar and Young-Star Johnson.

Oh, and Rudy, I'm pretty convinced that I'd rather see an alternating PP contest than either the existing skills competition or the actual game itself. Get the damn targets out of the net and show us some hockey skills, dammit.

Really? I can't tell if you're serious or not, but jeezus. What's wrong with ties again?

If the NHL is determined to eliminate ties, here's the things I'd like to see decide games:

a) endless OTb) a fight, scored by judgesc) a scavenger huntd) a coin-flip

It's getting to the point where if I'm watching an out-of-town game, I'll stop watching games at the end of regulation. Sometimes it's enough to know that a game goes to OT and is a 3-point game; I can wait for the paper the next day to find out who won the sideshow--no need to actually wait for and watch it.

Don't worry about it, Mike. The humor would have been much more obvious had the subject not been NHL decision-making. I've been following this league long enough that I don't automatically assume that just because something's ridiculous, that doesn't mean it's not the NHL's top priority.

Heck, I was even thinking that it was just a way that the NHL could increase sales of its corner-of-the-net targets.

No, it's OK to like a shootout, I really won't grudge that position. But in making it a regularity, it really has taken a lot of the appeal out of penalty shots.

I dunno--in a given team's season, I'd rather watch 3 penalty shots than 100. After a certain point, they get kind of stale (especially with Anaheim's record)--once you see all the moves and all the saves that are available, it loses a lot of its luster.

I think you just don't like it because Giguere sucks at the shootout and Dallas gets a 10-point boost because of it. It's funny, I used to look forward to shootouts last year because we had Garon; now I dread them because we have Labarbera and Aubin.

Certainly the Ducks' record has had an impact, but even aside from that bias, I do have some basic complaints about the shootout:

a) It is a skill that gets hugely rewarded in the standings, despite having no role in the postseason. The disproportion here is huge, and makes for a system wherein the 16 best teams at playoff hockey might not be the same 16 teams playing in the postseason.

b) The elimination of ties allows for very dubious record-breaking: Brodeur's win totals, the Ducks' recent "franchise record" 7-game home winning streak, etc., etc. Many lame records are being set on the back of the shootout.

c) I have to wait around for another zamboni run? That kills emotion, momentum, patience, and fun.

This is really late and totally out of nowhere, but I just realized how much the duck reminds me of Feathers McGraw from the Wallace and Gromit short, "The Wrong Trousers." All he needs is a red rubber glove!